Lost in Spice

Thekaddy, Kerala, India

 

Well I complain about the seeming state of near anarchy that pervades in India but compared to events on the other side of the world really it's a miracle that things run as well as they do here - nothing ever makes sense and nobody seems to be in charge ever and you may get swindled and overcharged and scammed and extorted, but in the end, things seem to work here, which is remarkable given a country of 1 billion people speaking 100+ different languages, many of whom have been ethnic/religious enemies for thousands of years and slaughter each other once a decade or so, with various splinter groups engaged in armed rebellion in spots and with an actual ongoing war with Pakistan in Kashmir  within its borders.  And yet still India, whatever that means, manages to continue existing.

 

So I'm not going to bitch about Thekaddy, and actually I wouldn't anyway because it's pretty nice.  It's right over the border of Kerala in the Western Ghats, which are the low (1-2k m) mountains that go down the spine of South India.  This particular spot is known as the Spice Mountains, specifically the Cardamom Hills - so it's the best smelling place in India, unless you're allergic to cardamom, in which case it kind of sucks.  Nearby is the Periyar wildlife reserve which apparently has some hard-to-see tigers and leopards as well as a boatload of elephants, I'm going on a night safari tonight to see what's what - but this area looks way to populated (overdevelopment is India's curse but there's too many other problems to worry about it).  If you ever come to India, btw, the Taj chain of hotels offers great value in the offseason, I've got a fantastic little jungle cabin for a song .

 

Tomorrow it's off to the west coast, hard to believe but only 2 more weeks in India and then the fantastic voyage is halfway done.